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Paul Colman

Enterprise architect Paul Colman has been supporting the Department of Homeland Security this year, and prior to that the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community for several years. He is one of the many MITRE staff who will provide experienced and comprehensive support to the new Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (HS SEDI™). Sponsored by DHS and operated by MITRE's Homeland Security Center (HLSC), the HS SEDI FFRDC provides systems engineering and acquisition expertise coupled with strategic management across the homeland security mission space. (For more on HS SEDI, please see the accompanying sidebar.)

Colman, who came to MITRE after 36 years of service to the government as a civilian, brought with him an abundance of knowledge about government infrastructures, processes, and systems. "As an enterprise architect, I provide generalized systems engineering, acquisition, and strategic planning support," he says. "Specifically, I assist DHS and its related organizations in evolving all aspects of their information technology infrastructure."

Building Network and Information Architectures

During his five years at MITRE, Colman's work has spanned a variety of issues and customers. "In my first few years, I provided joint command and control systems engineering support to the DoD," he says. "This work included some general systems engineering and architecture for the Global Information Grid." (The Global Information Grid, or GIG, is the interconnected set of capabilities for sharing information on demand among warfighters, policy-makers, and support personnel.)

"Later, I spent three years doing strategic planning for an agency within the DoD to achieve cross-program integration of 40 programs. I also spent a year on systems engineering planning and architecture for the DoD's multinational information sharing project. On yet another project, I completed some operational architecture work for U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. I supported the effort to align mission-based operational architecture with IT infrastructure architecture across a 15,000-person command that spans the globe."

More recently, Colman's support has shifted to the office of DHS's Chief Information Officer (CIO); the CIO oversees DHS's $5.4 billion in IT programs. "Now I primarily provide general systems engineering support to DHS," he says. "I work on the systems architecture of DHS networks, and the enterprise services and applications that run on those networks. In general, I help in the effort to make the networks and services faster, better, and cheaper, but more important, to make it so they achieve DHS operational mission requirements."

Many at MITRE recognize the unique perspective Colman brings to his work. David Harvey, the head of MITRE's HLSC systems engineering and acquisition department, says, "Paul is a great asset to DHS because of the wealth of information he brings from his decades of support to DoD in the classified infrastructure area. DHS is working hard to mature its classified IT infrastructure and Paul is an important part of that effort."

Making a Difference

After several decades of working directly for the government as a civilian, Colman knew he wanted to continue supporting the government but from the not-for-profit perspective. Shortly after arriving at MITRE in 2004, he knew MITRE was the right choice.

"There are so many things I like about MITRE," he says. "The way the company values people is wonderful. The high intellectual level of the staff is impressive. I really like how the company focuses on providing value, the breadth and diversity of its organizations, and the wide-ranging use of employee talents. Plus, I feel that the consistency of philosophy within MITRE management is unique."

Having a positive impact on his customer's effectiveness is clearly a priority for Colman. "I think that by working across several government agencies we help our sponsors achieve engineering economies of size and scale. They also know that we will apply sound systems engineering judgment to address their most pressing challenges. I believe MITRE definitely helps the government avoid duplication of intellectual and operational engineering effort."

Another thing Colman appreciates about MITRE is the importance the company places on maintaining a good balance between employees' personal and professional lives. "It has always been clear to me that MITRE wants its people to have a balanced life. They actively encourage people to be productive at work but to also enjoy life outside of work," he says. "I've now bought a beautiful RV, and my girlfriend and I intend to do some luxury camping all over this vast country as time permits!"

—by Kay M. Upham

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• Homeland Security Center (HLSC)
• Center for Enterprise Modernization (CEM)
• Our Work: Large-Scale Enterprise Transformation